We analyzed the occurrence of healthcare-associated infections (HAl) at intensive care unit of the Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Medicine of Martin Faculty Hospital in 2008. We performed a retrospective-prospective observation according the protocol of European HELICS (Hospital in Europe Link for Infection Control and Surveillance) system. We found 11 HAl (4.45%) which on average p...

Background: The International Bladder Cancer Group (IBCG) recently proposed a new definition of disease progression in non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC), including change in T-stage, change to T2 or higher or change from low to high grade. Objective: To establish whether blue light cystoscopy with hexaminolevulinate (HAL) impacts the rate of progression and time to progression using th...

PURPOSE In this European multicenter study we compared hexaminolevulinate (HAL) fluorescence cystoscopy and standard white light cystoscopy for the detection of carcinoma in situ (CIS) in patients suspected of having high risk bladder cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was a prospective controlled, within-patient comparison of standard and HAL fluorescence cystoscopy. Eligible patients ...

Experience using constraint programming to solve real-life problems has shown that finding an efficient solution to the problem often requires experimentation with different constraint solvers or even building a problem-specific constraint solver. HAL is a new constraint logic programming language expressly designed to facilitate this process. It provides semi-optional type, mode and determinis...

OBJECTIVE To detail and put into perspective, safety of hexaminolevulinate blue light cystoscopy (HAL-BLC), including repeated use, based on combined data of controlled trials used for registration of HAL and postmarketing experience. METHODS Safety data of 2 randomized comparative studies (group 1) and 4 within patient control studies (group 2) were combined. Postmarketing data from >200,000...

Local cerebral glucose utilization (LCGU) was determined in 49 brain regions of 3-, 12-, 24-, and 33-month-old awake Fischer-344 rats, at 30 to 120 min after administration of the dopaminergic antagonist haloperidol (HAL) at 1 mg/kg (i.p.). The quantitative autoradiographic [14C]-2-deoxyglucose technique was employed. In 3-month rats, HAL produced statistically significant (p less than 0.05) re...

BACKGROUND Optimum surgical intervention for low-grade haemorrhoids is unknown. Haemorrhoidal artery ligation (HAL) has been proposed as an efficacious, safe therapy while rubber band ligation (RBL) is a commonly used outpatient treatment. We compared recurrence after HAL versus RBL in patients with grade II-III haemorrhoids. METHODS This multicentre, open-label, parallel group, randomised co...

During meiosis, chromosomes align with their homologous pairing partners and stabilize this alignment through assembly of the synaptonemal complex (SC). Since the SC assembles cooperatively yet is indifferent to homology, pairing and SC assembly must be tightly coordinated. We identify HAL-2 as a key mediator in this coordination, showing that HAL-2 promotes pairing largely by preventing detrim...

Histidase (Hal), the amino acid-degrading enzyme of histidine, is regulated by the protein content of the diet and by hormones such as glucocorticoids and glucagon. However, glucagon can activate the following two possible transduction pathways: protein kinase A (PKA) and protein kinase C (PKC). The aim of this study was to isolate the 5'-flanking region of rat Hal gene to locate possible cAMP-...

Most patients with thoracic ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) exhibit delayed recovery of gait dysfunction after spinal injury. The hybrid assistive limb (HAL) is a new robot suit controlling knee and hip joint motion by detecting very weak bioelectric signals on the surface of the skin. This study is to report the feasibility and benefits of patient-assistive HAL walki...